Grand Theft Auto Online avatars will have custom lifestyles and family trees, so you can really get into character while robbing banks and shooting helicopters.

The gaming world is abuzz over Grand Theft Auto V, but don't let Grand Theft Auto Online slip off your radar. GTAO (which is bundled with all copies of vGTA V) is shaping up to be a pseudo-MMO with enough content to rival the single-player game. Rockstar recently spilled the beans on a few of its features, some of which have been bouncing around since Grand Theft Auto III.

From the start, Rockstar wanted to challenge the status quo. "I've always felt character creators in games to be a bit wacky - pulling the ears and noses to change the way they look seems wrong," says Rockstar North president Leslie Benzies. "That's not how humans are made in the real world. Normally it involves a man, a woman, and some sexy time." That sexy time is the foundation of your online avatar - instead of breaking down the minutia of your character's appearance, you'll select your parents and grandparents and see what happens. After that, you select a lifestyle (party animal, couch potato, etc) to determine your starting skills.

The gameplay structure of GTAO is looking interesting as well. Some 500 missions are available, many requiring a team of players to complete. Your crew can take on designated roles like sniper, look-out, and driver to pull a big heist, and then the crew leader can decide how to distribute the loot. Of course this also means your crew leader can take all the money and leave you hanging, but in that case you can take revenge (players drop any cash they were carrying upon death) or put a bounty on their head to encourage other players to take them down.

Grand Theft Auto Online goes live on October 1, two weeks after the launch of GTA V.

While this sounds cool, there remains the possibility of twins that wouldn't exist in a Skyrim-level system of customization. Two people pick the same parents from the available genepool, BOOM! Instant twins. Although with the lifestyle selection, they may end up with a fat twin and a skinny twin perhaps. So this begs the question, how random and how large is the available geneology for character creation?

Well that's...unexpected. How much do you control it, though? Do you select from a range of predetermined parents and go from there? Or do I have to spend even more hours on customizing up to four different characters to then get my actual character?

Remus:While this sounds cool, there remains the possibility of twins that wouldn't exist in a Skyrim-level system of customization. Two people pick the same parents from the available genepool, BOOM! Instant twins. Although with the lifestyle selection, they may end up with a fat twin and a skinny twin perhaps. So this begs the question, how random and how large is the available geneology for character creation?

That's... not how kids work. Me and my brother have the same parents, and while we definitely look like brothers, we are not twins.

Besides MMORPGs GTA Online may be the first MP mode in a game that I actually enjoy. I heard that there is a passive option so that other players can't kill me and that I can decide whom I want to let into my game world.

Hmm I wonder if you choose the parents and then have a "Hot Coffee" style QTE to make the baby, the players vigor, stamina and technique could alter the variables maybe? Do a good job and get higher base starting stats or something similar.

mad825:Let me guess, GTAV is multiplayer orientated? single player designed for multiplayer? Fuck this game.

...Nnooo.

GTAO is a completely separate thing that Rockstar plan to maintain alongside future releases. It comes bundled in with GTAV (and this very article literally says that in the third sentence). Seriously, that's been the biggest buzz about the new GTA since Rockstar released separate trailers so they could detail both the massive single player, and this additional, awesome looking multiplayer feature.

OT: Meh. I've never seen anything wrong with character creators being an obvious element of gameplay so one actually gets to decide how the character they'll be staring at for the next 20+ hours of gameplay looks. I don't feel a need to make that 'realistic' or the process itself 'immersive'. While I'm not going to judge this before I see it (maybe there will be enough choices of parents to get the look you want), it does still feel like it'll be more limited than a straight up character creator, and it's hardly the feature getting me most excited about GTAO.

Still, it'll at least be an improvement on the shitty generic character roster available for GTAIV multiplayer.

Any word yet on whether we'll be able to have female characters in GTAO?

sounds like the sims, but should be cool, hopefully we have a little more control then just a random generation based on two other characters... or i might end up hiting the re-roll button a few hundred times

mad825:Let me guess, GTAV is multiplayer orientated? single player designed for multiplayer? Fuck this game.

...Nnooo.

GTAO is a completely separate thing that Rockstar plan to maintain alongside future releases. It comes bundled in with GTAV (and this very article literally says that in the third sentence). Seriously, that's been the biggest buzz about the new GTA since Rockstar released separate trailers so they could detail both the massive single player, and this additional, awesome looking multiplayer feature.

Yes, the game being "bundled" means that it's a completely different game and you're getting more than you pay for :| a marketing ploy if you cannot see through that.

I for one am sceptical, the gameplay features between GTAV and "GTAO" are fairly similar by nature and they haven't differentiated between the two. Maybe they'll release more information soon but Rockstar as of late has been focusing specifically on multiplayer and DLC, their agenda will most likly lay on that.

Remus:While this sounds cool, there remains the possibility of twins that wouldn't exist in a Skyrim-level system of customization. Two people pick the same parents from the available genepool, BOOM! Instant twins. Although with the lifestyle selection, they may end up with a fat twin and a skinny twin perhaps. So this begs the question, how random and how large is the available geneology for character creation?

That's... not how kids work. Me and my brother have the same parents, and while we definitely look like brothers, we are not twins.

Lies!

I look almost identical to both of my sisters. Despite our varied environmental influences from the moment of our conception, including my mother having malaria whilst she was pregnant with me and the meds giving me near constant tinnitus, we all look almost identical!

That is how genes work! Everyone knows that. That is why large families with 5+ children are so hard to be around, so many twins.

...

OT: Sounds interesting. When this hits PC's it will definitely be on my radar. Till then? Meh, maybe someone in the house will own it next year and maybe it will be the first GTA I beat since GTA Vice City. The online portion does look interesting.

My experience with GTA4 online was "The servers barely work, I cannot connect with my friend sitting less than a foot away but I can connect with a bored Russian hacker who has made himself immortal."

mad825:Let me guess, GTAV is multiplayer orientated? single player designed for multiplayer? Fuck this game.

...Nnooo.

GTAO is a completely separate thing that Rockstar plan to maintain alongside future releases. It comes bundled in with GTAV (and this very article literally says that in the third sentence). Seriously, that's been the biggest buzz about the new GTA since Rockstar released separate trailers so they could detail both the massive single player, and this additional, awesome looking multiplayer feature.

Yes, the game being "bundled" means that it's a completely different game and you're getting more than you pay for :| a marketing ploy if you cannot see through that.

I for one am sceptical, the gameplay features between GTAV and "GTAO" are fairly similar by nature and they haven't differentiated between the two. Maybe they'll release more information soon but Rockstar as of late has been focusing specifically on multiplayer and DLC, their agenda will most likly lay on that.

you.... you didn't see the trailer about how players can make their own races from scratch and then upload them to the rest of the community, or create special "DM/TDM/KoH" areas and do the same, changing everything from spawn points to weapons, time of day, and weather?

Or the fact it's a bit like Saints Row 2 Multiplayer Crew thing, or better example is RDR's posse, where you can join up with a number of people at any time.

Not to mention that while it's a bundle with GTA V, GTAO is going to be released two weeks later after launch to finish polishing the game.

Of course it's going to look similar, they both use the same engine. what did you expect, GTA V single player being grounded in a little bit of reality, but the multiplayer haveing you run around in a microbikini smashing people over the head with a dildo bat before flying away with your new found superpowers that completely ruin the game?

you.... you didn't see the trailer about how players can make their own races from scratch and then upload them to the rest of the community, or create special "DM/TDM/KoH" areas and do the same, changing everything from spawn points to weapons, time of day, and weather?

Or the fact it's a bit like Saints Row 2 Multiplayer Crew thing, or better example is RDR's posse, where you can join up with a number of people at any time.

Not to mention that while it's a bundle with GTA V, GTAO is going to be released two weeks later after launch to finish polishing the game.

Of course it's going to look similar, they both use the same engine. what did you expect, GTA V single player being grounded in a little bit of reality, but the multiplayer haveing you run around in a microbikini smashing people over the head with a dildo bat before flying away with your new found superpowers that completely ruin the game?

Someone's angry. Did I upset the nerd within you? Nope, you're completely missing the point that I'm saying.

To dumb it down for you: I think there's Multiplayer in my single player game.

you.... you didn't see the trailer about how players can make their own races from scratch and then upload them to the rest of the community, or create special "DM/TDM/KoH" areas and do the same, changing everything from spawn points to weapons, time of day, and weather?

Or the fact it's a bit like Saints Row 2 Multiplayer Crew thing, or better example is RDR's posse, where you can join up with a number of people at any time.

Not to mention that while it's a bundle with GTA V, GTAO is going to be released two weeks later after launch to finish polishing the game.

Of course it's going to look similar, they both use the same engine. what did you expect, GTA V single player being grounded in a little bit of reality, but the multiplayer haveing you run around in a microbikini smashing people over the head with a dildo bat before flying away with your new found superpowers that completely ruin the game?

Someone's angry. Did I upset the nerd within you? Nope, you're completing missed the point that I'm saying.

Your point seems to be that Rockstar is potentially devoting more time on the online component than the single player component. And you're right, they are... at this point. And there's a reason for that. The single player experience is Gold, it's shipping in a few days, they don't need to worry about it anymore. The online component is still being tweaked, so yeah they're concentrating on that more... pretty much a given.

And you're gonna have to give me some reasoning on why them spending time on an online component now is a bad thing? Sure it wasn't in their games before, but it wasn't needed. Has there been a Rockstar game yet where the online component was more than the single player, any GTA where the content for the single player experience wasn't massive? You're being awfully cynical about a component of the game that doesn't affect the core GTA experience. Do you just not think online should be a thing in the GTA series, or do you just automatically hate anything in a game you won't be using regularly?

I mean I won't be using the online that much, certainly not in the beginning... but I don't care. They didn't dumb down the single player experience to add online... they're not Insomniac, they're not that dumb.

mad825:Let me guess, GTAV is multiplayer orientated? single player designed for multiplayer? Fuck this game.

...Nnooo.

GTAO is a completely separate thing that Rockstar plan to maintain alongside future releases. It comes bundled in with GTAV (and this very article literally says that in the third sentence). Seriously, that's been the biggest buzz about the new GTA since Rockstar released separate trailers so they could detail both the massive single player, and this additional, awesome looking multiplayer feature.

Yes, the game being "bundled" means that it's a completely different game and you're getting more than you pay for :| a marketing ploy if you cannot see through that.

... I didn't say either. Obviously it's mechanically the same game, using the same engine, assets etc. no one ever suggested it wasn't. The shooting will handle the same, there will be cars in both and it will all take place in the same (massive) map. And where did I say 'you get more than you pay for'? All I said was that they're different entities, and you get both for the asking price. The singleplayer has a story, three playable, voiced characters and an environment affected pretty much only by you, the same (with the exception of the three protagonist thing) as every other entry in the series.

There is also a multiplayer element, which is the same thing but with less structure and other players running around, who you can team up with or fight or ignore at your leisure. There's no intersection, you don't have to play one element to enjoy the other.

It's not a 'marketing ploy' if they are literally just stating the features that will be in the game.

mad825:I for one am sceptical, the gameplay features between GTAV and "GTAO" are fairly similar by nature and they haven't differentiated between the two. Maybe they'll release more information soon but Rockstar as of late has been focusing specifically on multiplayer and DLC, their agenda will most likly lay on that.

Haven't differentiated between the two? You mean, the fact that one will have a story, jokes, pop culture references, missions undertaken solely by you and the unique feature of being to body swap between three guys at any point in the game isn't any different from taking on other, real life players using avatars with the same abilities as yours in a death match, or a race, or teaming up with them, working with them in real time to rob banks, or planes (and then dogfight in them? Really?

I mean, I'm not saying everyone should enjoy online play, that everyone should get excited but let me just reiterate that. In single player, there will probably be a mission where you fly a jet and bomb the crap out of some computer controlled, lifeless, generic NPCs. Fun, sure. But in multiplayer, you will be able to get together with a bunch of friends, shoot your way into an airbase, steal said jets and then dogfight with them.

I know on paper it's a simple difference - do the same stuff alone with NPCs, or with other flesh and blood players. But the experience you get from both is going to be massively different, as it always is when you through in the competition/co-operation you can only get from thinking human beings.

Yeah, I remember when I first watched that not being sure. There's, I think, one shot that maybe shows a female avatar (she's walking into a room of people, camera's behind her?), but most of the avatars you see engaged in actual activities are male; all the shots of people jacking cars, getting their hair done and shooting stuff are male. My question was more whether someone official has categorically stated it's possible. Still haven't seen it myself, but there's enough people saying it's been confirmed (and it was mentioned in a recent IGN article) that I believe it.

So yay, I guess. I can spend my online time staring at a shapely female ass instead of the typically muscled buttocks of your average male game avatar (yay for equality, right?). I can't wait to get spammed with messages asking if I'm really a girl and if I'll show them my boobs.

Mad825, a lot of articles about GTA5 seem to always mention SP and MP in the same breath which at first also lead me to think the same as you. I found a really cool article about GTA SP that Polygon just put up today. Whether it quells that frustration in you aside, I'm sure it will at least clarify how Rockstar themselves intend to separate the two. I even double checked to make sure it never once mentions GTA Online.

you.... you didn't see the trailer about how players can make their own races from scratch and then upload them to the rest of the community, or create special "DM/TDM/KoH" areas and do the same, changing everything from spawn points to weapons, time of day, and weather?

Or the fact it's a bit like Saints Row 2 Multiplayer Crew thing, or better example is RDR's posse, where you can join up with a number of people at any time.

Not to mention that while it's a bundle with GTA V, GTAO is going to be released two weeks later after launch to finish polishing the game.

Of course it's going to look similar, they both use the same engine. what did you expect, GTA V single player being grounded in a little bit of reality, but the multiplayer haveing you run around in a microbikini smashing people over the head with a dildo bat before flying away with your new found superpowers that completely ruin the game?

Someone's angry. Did I upset the nerd within you? Nope, you're completely missing the point that I'm saying.

To dumb it down for you: I think there's Multiplayer in my single player game.

you.... you didn't see the trailer about how players can make their own races from scratch and then upload them to the rest of the community, or create special "DM/TDM/KoH" areas and do the same, changing everything from spawn points to weapons, time of day, and weather?

Or the fact it's a bit like Saints Row 2 Multiplayer Crew thing, or better example is RDR's posse, where you can join up with a number of people at any time.

Not to mention that while it's a bundle with GTA V, GTAO is going to be released two weeks later after launch to finish polishing the game.

Of course it's going to look similar, they both use the same engine. what did you expect, GTA V single player being grounded in a little bit of reality, but the multiplayer haveing you run around in a microbikini smashing people over the head with a dildo bat before flying away with your new found superpowers that completely ruin the game?

Someone's angry. Did I upset the nerd within you? Nope, you're completely missing the point that I'm saying.

To dumb it down for you: I think there's Multiplayer in my single player game.

If I sound angry, its due to the hate that is Saints Row IV that still hasn't left my system, that's going to be my go-to for how badly a developer can fuck up a series for a long while.

What I'm getting at is that both games are going to be similar of course due to engine and gameplay limitations, only a complete idiot of a developer will make new gameplay elements specifically for one portion of a game be it single or multiplayer.

What I'm saying is that so far since we haven't actually gotten a hands on view on how it is handled, it sounds like GTAO is going to be separate entirely, possibly being launched from a separate application. Or it could be like how GTA IV did it with it being an option in your cellphone.

Either way could happen, but from what rockstar has put out so far it seems like GTAO is going to be handled as an entirely separate game from GTA V with constant updates, fixes, and possibly DLC involved, where as the base game will more than likely get a few game breaking bug fixes.

They have said they are going to support the online game longer than the base, and seeing how long it usually is between GTA games that could be several years.

What I'm actually wondering is what happens when GTA VI comes out, will they keep supporting the GTAO for V or will it be considered "finished" and no longer supported.

If that happens, then what would VI's multiplayer look like, since somewhere they mentioned this is how they will be dealing with the multiplayer portions for a while.

Remus:While this sounds cool, there remains the possibility of twins that wouldn't exist in a Skyrim-level system of customization. Two people pick the same parents from the available genepool, BOOM! Instant twins. Although with the lifestyle selection, they may end up with a fat twin and a skinny twin perhaps. So this begs the question, how random and how large is the available geneology for character creation?

Voulan:Well that's...unexpected. How much do you control it, though? Do you select from a range of predetermined parents and go from there? Or do I have to spend even more hours on customizing up to four different characters to then get my actual character?

I'm all for it, though. It's a nice change of pace.

You can select how much each parent inputs into the process, according to what I've read before. You know, just like real life.

J Tyran:Hmm I wonder if you choose the parents and then have a "Hot Coffee" style QTE to make the baby, the players vigor, stamina and technique could alter the variables maybe? Do a good job and get higher base starting stats or something similar.

If you miss too many buttons, does you character fail to be created?

mad825:[quote="UrinalDook" post="7.828162.20145059"]I for one am sceptical, the gameplay features between GTAV and "GTAO" are fairly similar by nature and they haven't differentiated between the two.

LOL what? You mean besides different trailers, different release dates, different approaches to the player, different goals. Yeah, totally failed to differentiate.

Remus:While this sounds cool, there remains the possibility of twins that wouldn't exist in a Skyrim-level system of customization. Two people pick the same parents from the available genepool, BOOM! Instant twins. Although with the lifestyle selection, they may end up with a fat twin and a skinny twin perhaps. So this begs the question, how random and how large is the available geneology for character creation?

Also I hear that there's a slider you can ... slide, which will let you decide which parent's genes are more dominant, and how much so.I'm looking forward to it, my wife however likes spending an hour creating her character with all the little options. After years of playing Sims, Saints Row, and Fallout games, she's gotten really good at it too. She's even able to make a beautiful character in a Fallout game...the only one in the wateland.

Bat Vader:Besides MMORPGs GTA Online may be the first MP mode in a game that I actually enjoy. I heard that there is a passive option so that other players can't kill me and that I can decide whom I want to let into my game world.

So am I wrong in thinking this is a bit like Demon's Souls/Dark Souls style of multiplayer, expect with generally more players joining in? If so, I'm all for it, I love the way DS games take the approach to multiplayer (though I more often get my ass kicked by an invader than get helped out by a phantom, but it's all good fun).

Now to just wait for a PC release announcement... guessing I'm in for a 6 month wait or something. I got a PS3, but I seriously can't be arsed playing a shooter on a console that's eventually coming out on a PC anyway (no offense to console players... I just MUCH prefer my mouse and keyboard for shooting)

PSEscapist, the whole thing with the videos playing automatically when I open a page is seriously irritating. I'm gonna look at the video, just let me do it at my own pace, I constantly get annoyed when I open a page in a new tab/window and Escapist music starts blasting out of nowhere.

Did mad825 need to be modded?It's a legit gripe even if it is a bit off topic. I hate it when they shoehorn a multiplayer game into a single player game, using resources that could make the sp game more robust. However, R* has been working on this for years so I'm pretty sure we're still going to get the usual super long sp experience. And we'll see if it's true but it looks like Online will be a whole 'nother GTA game rather than just multiplayer game modes set in the map of gtav.

Its cool to mess with Im sure, but I want MY character to look how I want... I probably love character creation cause I hate how genetics made me. Its not like Rogue Legacy where it doesnt matter so much their faults since maybe the next kid will be better...

Well this is no news, they said the same couple weeks ago. still looks like a unique and quite fun idea.

P.S. please stop making videos play automatically in new articles. its very annoying to try search for the tab thats playing on full volume and disturbing not only you but others around as well. whats worse is that in forums it does that AGAIN and so it does after post.